Tudor Trivia – Did You Know Facts About Tudor England

During Elizabeth I’s reign, one in four girls born in England were named after the queen!
King James I of England was the first English monarch to have more than one name.
His full name was Charles James Stuart. The ‘Charles’ was in honor of Prince Charles of France, who was Mary queen of Scots’s brother-in-law during her brief marriage to King Francis.
Before this, all English monarchs were simply baptized ‘Henry’ or ‘Elizabeth’. In the twentieth century, we witnessed how much that tradition has changed – I think Prince Charles has two or three middle names.

Nifty bits of information

Sir Walter Raleigh’s wife kept his head in a red leather bag for 29 years
(he had been executed in 1618 by James I)
Raleigh introduced the potato to Ireland & tobacco to England
when Sir Thomas More was executed by Henry VIII, his head was parboiled and stuck on a pole at London Bridge. More’s daughter paid the bridgekeeper to knock it down – she caught it, took it home & years later, was buried with it

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife & Queen Elizabeth’s mother, was widely believed to have eleven fingers and three breasts

there was no coffin provided for Anne Boleyn at her execution. Her body was stuck in an old arrow chest with the head tucked beneath the arm. It is rumored that her heart was cut out & stolen – it was secretly hidden until 1836 (when it was ‘rediscovered’ and buried at a church in Suffolk.)

in Elizabethan times, many women wore a form of make-up which was lead-based – it had the unfortunate habit of eating iinto their skin!

The night before Catherine Howard was executed, she requested that the chopping block which was to be used for her beheading be brought to her room in the Tower of London. She spent the night practicing putting her head on the block so that there would be a clean cut on the first try and she would die a dignified death. submitted by Lori Hlucky

The first ballet de cour (not in the modern form) was preformed at the wedding of Mary Queen of Scots and Francis the Dauphin in 1558. The ballet de cour was costly entertainment cosisting of vocal/instrumental music, spoken dialogue, pantomime, dancing and mechanical effects. All dancers wore masks, and the people at the party participated. Most principal roles were played by men and some women had minor parts. submitted by Alanna

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